Internet in DR has been shut down for a week now with more focus on social media apps

The DRC electoral commission (CENI) head Corneille Nangaa has announced that poll results from the previous December elections have been postponed until later this week (Jan 7th-14th) as the countrywide internet ban continues.

Earlier this month, DRC shutdown the internet and Sms systems as a move to put an end to election rumors. The same situation happened in Uganda during the 2016 general elections when mobile money and social media were shutdown giving a great downloads boost to free VPNs in smartphone stores.

However, this has increased tension in the country and the electoral body has made a statement that results will be published later this week after beating yesterday’s (6th Jan) promised annunciation date. Furthermore, the commission stated that only 47% of ballots from polling stations in the region have been received and this shows an extension of the internet ban in the country even when America has expressed interest in the matter so far.

The Internet blockage during elections trend in Africa

In Africa, the freedom of accessing the internet seems to be a long gone story since Government s now issue direct commands to shut down the internet and possibly all forms of mobile communication. To make matters worse, elections act as juicers to the whole internet blockage dilemma as the situation is currently evident in DRC under the leadership of Joseph Kabila who has ruled the central African region since 2001

Depending on the rate of Internet solutions and startups blooming up in Africa, the state of connecting to the global network seems shuttered in Africa. Additionally, we might see the current situation spreading to more African countries in a bid to delay election results and possible after elections tension online.